by Lindsay H. Jones, USA TODAY Sports

by Lindsay H. Jones, USA TODAY Sports

MOBILE, Ala. - Jeremy Schaap and Katie Couric were the warm-up acts for the grilling Manti Te'o will receive from NFL teams next month when he shows up for the scouting combine in Indianapolis.

Te'o pulled out of the Senior Bowl in Mobile before the scandal involving his non-existent dead girlfriend broke Jan. 16, so he has avoided the initial predraft interviews. Te'o won't be able to dodge rooms full of general managers and head coaches at the combine.

Team executives will arrive in Indianapolis with binders full of background reports, information discovered over months of work by scouts through interviews with college and high school coaches and teachers, as well as private background checks.

Those 15-minute interviews can feel like an interrogation, especially for a player who might have had a character issue such as an arrest or a suspension.

"Like you killed somebody. 'Where were you Nov. 27 at ...' I'm like, 'Man, I don't know. I don't remember that. That's 1997, man. I don't know,' " said former New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs, who served time in juvenile detention and was on probation as a teenager after an arrest for vandalism. "I had to give them more information on what really happened. But at the end of the day, they have investments they have to protect. I don't blame them for asking those questions."

The process begins in Mobile, where top senior prospects spend a week surrounded by NFL scouts, coaches and personnel executives. After each practice, scouts swarm the field, notebooks in hand, seeking out specific players. They run through a list of questions, from the basics ("What's your cellphone number?") to the more personal ("Have you ever been arrested?").

"They have access to everything. I mean, when you put your Social Security number down, you just gave your life to them. If you're not going to be honest, they're going to find it out," said Georgia defensive tackle John Jenkins, projected as a first-round pick.

The prospects spend several more hours each night in interviews with teams at a downtown hotel. Players are told by their agents to be honest because there are few questions that will be asked by teams that to which teams don't already know the answers. Lying about an incident is often considered an even worse offense.

"So when you interview with an NFL team, the whole point is you want to tell them the truth, but you want to make sure they understand it from your point of view. Short of committing homicide, guys have gotten chances in the league," said agent Ian Greengross, whose clients include Oakland Raiders running back Darren McFadden and Chicago Bears defensive tackle Amobi Okoye. "The worst thing you can do is not tell them the truth. You just have to make sure you say it the right way."

It won't be as easy for Te'o because of the nature of his off-the-field issue. One NFL personnel director, who spoke to USA TODAY Sports on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss his team's scouting plans, says the teams most interested in Te'o will devote extra resources to dig into Te'o's hoax situation because teams want to know if he lied or is just naive.

Jacobs said he would advise Te'o to be honest.

"You've got your career, you've got your livelihood on the line. Go tell these people what happened. If you were set up, you were set up," Jacobs said. "I think people are being stupid about the whole thing and it's being blown out of proportion. The man has an imaginary girlfriend. Whatever the case was, if that floats his boat, that floats his boat. It doesn't have to float anybody else's boat. ... It fell to pieces for whatever reason, but the man is a good football player."